Related Articles

7 users responded in this post

Subscribe to this post comment rss or trackback url
mygif

I vaguely remember this book, and not being impressed. IIRC it didn’t convince me at all that it was singling out uniquely bad shows—is Three’s Company really worse than any other jiggle sitcom?—as much as examples of general mediocrity.

ReplyReply
mygif

I think there’s this really damaging tendency to 1. reduce measurement of art into a single spectrum of quality- hell even the goofy geometry metric Robin Williams’ character derides in “Dead Poets Society” has 2 axes, artfulness and importance, and that’s better than most people get to… especially then with 2. the desire to simplify a spectrum into a binary good/bad.

A long time ago I coined a “Theory of Multiple Intelligences for Art”, that goes something like
A. art needs to judged in a multidimensional away–
B. to the extent that there’s “good art” it will be art that succeeds on more of those axes than mediocre or poor art
C. very little art exists that doesn’t work on at least one of these axes, in particular, commercial success is almost universally indicative of success in a few of these
D. Ok, so, not all the axes are created equal, some are more important and/or easier to achieve than others– some may only have subjective meaning, might only work for a certain target audience.

And maybe this is all so much anti-elitist, post-modern, “can’t we all just get along” kumbaya– but actually I think there’s something to it.

ReplyReply
mygif

1) Adam Sandler movies are trash and people who disagree are idiots. I won’t budge on this.

2) Jurassic World is one of the most insultingly bad films I’ve ever sat through. People who disagree should be legally classified as subhuman and denied the vote(Sorry mom).

3) There are a couple entire genres of anime that liking instantly makes me respect you less as a human being.

Apart from that, I don’t really judge people on their horrible, horrible taste. God knows I like some things that objectively are utter trash.

Personally, when people tell me they don’t like anything that sucks, my first assumption is that they’re lying and, if not that, pretentious assholes.

ReplyReply
mygif
Aussiesmurf said on November 9th, 2015 at 5:15 pm

I think that there is something to be said for ‘lowly genre, extremely skilfully crafted’. Examples would be Top Gun, Sherlock Holmes (the books), James Bond and Basic Instinct. People look at art like the above and think “I could do that, no problem” only to realise, as the oceans of bad rip-offs show that it isn’t that easy.

The most entertaining ‘so bad its fascinating’ pieces of art are never done with a wink and a nudge. They are crafted with an absolute dedication and monomania, secure in the conviction that a great work in being crafted. That is why Ed Wood resonates. In his own little way, he was trying to make masterpieces.

I firmly believe there is no wrong answer to the question “What is your favourite book / movie / song / album?” There was a piece a while ago (maybe on Slate, I can’t remember) that absolutely ripped on Billy Joel. I mean, it just completely trashed his work in a really nasty way. I just read it and thought about the hubris it takes to tell that many people that their enjoyment of a particular artist is just misguided and wrong.

And for those who think great art can’t coincide with commercial success, remember that Shakespeare owned three houses and died a wealthy man.

ReplyReply
mygif

Does Michael Barrier have a hipster attitude towards modern animation?

http://www.michaelbarrier.com

ReplyReply
mygif
philippos42 said on November 21st, 2015 at 12:03 am

We can learn from ineptitude, we can learn from mistakes. Bad art often teaches us how not to make that kind of art. Bad writing can teach us how not to write–and maybe sometimes even how not to think or behave, if we reflect on it.

ReplyReply
mygif

John, on the topic of failure, have you read Neil Steinberg’s “Complete & Utter Failure”? It’s a really charming examination of stuff like this, and if you haven’t already I suspect you’d get a lot out of it. Also out of the TAL “Fiasco” episode, but I’m taking it for granted that you heard that one.

ReplyReply

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Please Note: Comment moderation may be active so there is no need to resubmit your comments